Christian Rasmussen achieves his first IndyCar top 10 finish at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio – After posting his best NTT IndyCar Series qualifying result of his short career on Saturday, Christian Rasmussen backed it up with a career-best ninth-place finish in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The Danish racer started eighth in the 27-car field and was in sixth place before his final pit stop in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. Unfortunately for Rasmussen, Alexander Rossi, Christian Lundgaard and Kyle Kirkwood passed the 2023 Indy NXT champion during the final pit stop sequence, dropping him to his eventual ninth-place finish.

“That was great!” said Rasmussen Front line after the race. “We did exactly what we needed to do today to have a clean, nice finish… We obviously had good pace in the car, we showed that in qualifying yesterday. But yeah, super, super happy. First top 10, I’m sure there will be more to come.”

“It really shows how much development we have made, not just me as a driver, but everyone in this team. It’s been great to be a part of it and now it’s finally showing what we’re capable of. So yeah, I’m just very happy about it.”

This year has been a conundrum for Rasmussen on road and street circuits. Before Mid-Ohio, the 2020 USF2000 champion only managed two finishes above 19th in his part-time effort for ECR (12th at the Indianapolis 500, 13th at Laguna Seca).

The team owner of the same name will take over the seat for the remaining oval races of the season, while Rasmussen will be behind the wheel on the streets of Toronto and at Portland International Raceway.

“On paper, it was a strange year,” said Ed Carpenter Front line“It looks like we’ve taken a step back compared to last year. Internally, it feels like we’re better. We just haven’t been able to get the results we wanted because of our own mistakes and sometimes a bit of bad luck.”

“You know, in Detroit he was on his way to a top-10 finish when we had an engine issue. So he’s been doing a really good job and making progress and it’s nice for him to get a reward here and ultimately a confidence boost as we move toward the final two road course races for him.”

With his result, Rasmussen climbed from 22nd to 19th place in the points standings, 21 points behind his teammate Rinus VeeKay in 18th place.